It is expected that real-time person-to-person communication, like IP
telephony (VoIP), presence, instant messaging, voice, video, and data
collaboration will be the next big step of Internet usage. The Internet
standard for such communication is SIP. To be part of this accelerating
SIP user community, it is important that your network is prepared for it.
To have universal connectivity across the Internet, NATs and Firewalls
need to be SIP capable, which is currently uncommon.

Person-To-Person Communication
Internet started as a defense, research, and university network. There are
two applications that have spread the Internet usage to almost all
companies and persons in the world: e-mail and Web surfing. However, these
applications do not direct real-time communication between individuals, a
capability that is becoming highly useful as more and more individuals
have broadband or a fixed connection to the Internet.

Therefore, the next big step of Internet usage will include
person-to-person communication such as:

Several forms of person-to-person communication over the Internet have
already been in use for a few years. However, it is just now, when a
general standard has been established, that these types of applications
will become more available and more widely used. SIP is the Internet
standard for such applications and currently has a strongly accelerating
growth.

A powerful driving force for SIP is that Microsoft has announced that all
future real time communication (RTC) will be based on the SIP standard.
Windows Messenger, which can be downloaded at no charge, already has a SIP
mode that provides the user with telephony, voice, video, presence, and
instant messaging. And, Microsoft is set to launch Greenwich, the RTC
services for the Windows 2003 server. Greenwich includes a SIP server for
safe enterprise usage and a programming API, which is expected to result
in numerous SIP applications. With the market impact of Microsoft, there
could easily be tens of millions of SIP users.

IP TELEPHONY -- JUST ONE PART SIP is also used for ï¿½ordinary telephony,ï¿½ i.e., voice with 3 kHz
bandwidth and common number dialing, over IP networks. For this
application, the SIP standard is taking over from the earlier H.323, which
is a protocol from the standardisation organisation of the telecom world,
the ITU-T. H.323 has been used to build islands of VoIP, but most often
without interoperability on the IP level between the different operators.
Another protocol is MGCP, or the related H.248/MEGACO, that sometimes is
used to control IP phones on a low level in order for operators to connect
these to the old telephone network, the PSTN.

It should be noted that IP telephony -- where ordinary telephony is
emulated over IP -- is only a small part of person-to-person communication
for which SIP was created. Real time person-to-person communication is
expected to be the next big step in Internet usage following e-mail and
Web surfing.

FIREWALLS, NATs, ROUTERS
When connecting a PC to the Internet, you do not want it to be accessible
for everyone or vulnerable to attacks from hackers. That is especially
important if you are constantly connected, for example via broadband or a
fixed line. A firewall protects the PC by only allowing approved traffic
and by rejecting attacks and illegal data packets.

On a local-area network (LAN), where several PCs or other equipment is
connected, it is common to have private IP addresses on the LAN and a
single common public IP address to the Internet. That is called NAT
(Network Address Translation) and is often an integrated part of the
firewall.

Firewalls and NAT-routers are designed for data traffic that is
initiated from the inside of the private network. If instead the data
traffic is initiated from the outside, and even worse, must reach a
specific user on the private network, serious problems occur.

This is exactly what is happening with person-to-person communication
via SIP. Therefore, it is highly important that all new firewalls and NAT
routers now being installed are designed to support SIP properly and
securely.

A TICKING TIME BOMB? Most firewalls installed today do not handle SIP in an adequate way.
The problem occurs for all similar protocols (e.g., H.323) where a person
on a private LAN is to be contacted. Ordinary firewalls are simply not
designed for such data traffic. It is a common misunderstanding that well
known firewalls can be configured to handle SIP traffic, but that is not
the case. One problem is that the media streams (e.g., voice and video
packets) are transferred over dynamically assigned UDP ports that are
generally closed. Another problem is that the SIP clients inside the
firewall cannot be reached by IP addresses since these most often are
private and local to the LAN. It simply does not work, unless there is
specific SIP support in the firewall.

The same applies to routers that are switching the address space, NATs.
NAT routers are used when several users share a common Internet connection
with a single IP address. There are also operators only offering private
IP addresses to their customers.

SIP NAT/FIREWALL TRAVERSAL It is of course a fundamental problem that person-to-person
communication does not reach the users on the LANs. Various methods and
equipment have been suggested to solve this problem in a number of
situations, but the most general one is to eliminate the problem where it
occurs -- in the firewall itself. Firewalls including a SIP server (with a
SIP proxy and SIP registrar) that dynamically controls the firewall are
currently available.

A number of firewall vendors are planning to introduce models including a
SIP ALG (Application Layer Gateway). These ALGs usually work at a lower
level than a proxy, adjusting the data packets ï¿½on-the-fly.ï¿½ Cisco is
planning to introduce such ALGs that also handle incoming calls to
multiple users, while other more simple implementations may only support a
single SIP user on the LAN. A common limitation of the ALG architecture is
that it cannot handle secure SIP signaling via TLS (Transport Layer
Security). TLS is strongly recommended by Microsoft to be used with their
Greenwich SIP enterprise solution.

SIP capable firewalls are not more expensive than ordinary firewalls and
should be considered for all new installations of firewalls and NATs. If
not, there is a high risk that even newly installed firewalls and NATs
have to be exchanged in the near future.

Other methods are also proposed for SIP firewall and NAT traversal.

STUN is a method for getting SIP through existing NATs. It works
through keeping holes open in the NAT by dummy traffic and having the SIP
clients emulate their ï¿½looksï¿½ from the outside of the protected LAN. STUN
will not work for all NATs and not for real secure firewalls, and may have
some scalability and security issues. The SIP client has to implement STUN
and integrate it in the SIP stack to make it work.

There are also various tunneling approaches, creating a tunnel through the
firewall and then having an ALG in a central place at the ï¿½SIP operatorï¿½
to cope with the separate address space of the private LANs and their
individual users. Special equipment is therefore required at the SIP
operator and sometimes, special equipment and software are required on the
LAN or in the SIP clients. With this approach, the users get locked into a
specific SIP operator. This approach can normally not handle complex
configurations, such as inter-working between an operator and the
Microsoft Greenwich architecture, where a local SIP server on the LAN is
used.

For home users, Microsoft has suggested an extension to UPnP (Universal
Plug and Play) to allow Windows to control the NAT or firewall. Several
small inexpensive NATs have implemented these UPnP extensions, and thus
allow SIP traversal for Windows Messenger (which is SIP based). However,
it is not secure to allow every PC on the LAN to open the firewall, so
UPnP is not acceptable for a proper firewall that should protect the LAN
(In the Greenwich architecture, even Microsoft recommends that UPnP be
disabled for high security). Another limitation is of course that UPnP
control from Windows clients will not help other SIP products (e.g., SIP
phones) to traverse a NAT or firewall.

CONCLUSION
In all new installations of firewalls and NAT routers, proper SIP support
should be assured to allow the users on the LANs to utilize real time
person to person communication, the next big usage of the Internet. Of the
various methods proposed for firewall and NAT traversal, the most general
and reliable is to solve the problems where it occurs, in the firewall or
NAT itself. By including a SIP proxy and a SIP registrar for controlling
the NAT and firewall, it is possible to handle complex SIP scenarios and
to use TLS for secure and private signaling.

Karl Erik Stï¿½hl is president, Intertex Data AB, Sweden, a Swedish
company with 20 yearsï¿½ experience in telecommunications and the
development of high-quality communication and security products.
Currently, Intertex is developing next generation broadband access
products focusing on the SIP standard and person-to-person IP
communication. For more information, please visit the company online at
www.intertex.se.